The ROad goes ever on and on ... Day 397 (897)

With the new booster looming, guidance is appearing about just when to get it. Some general advice I found was to wait three to six months from your last infection or vaccination before getting the new booster. However, there is more specific advice for certain groups who should get any new booster as soon as it is available. Those groups would include immunocompromised people, people over 50, and people with medical conditions that put them at added risk. 

Coronavirus, monkeypox, polio, and now, cases of West Nile virus are rising with new infections in California, Louisiana, Maryland, and New Jersey. Since 80 percent of West Nile cases may be asymptomatic, there is likely spread out there that hasn't been detected yet. 

On the subject of incubation periods and just how and when a disease can be transmitted, an item in JAMA Network Open reports that covid's incubation time has decreased significantly with every new variant, meaning Omicron has the shortest time between infection and symptoms. The incubation period for each variant was noted as 5.00 days for Alpha, 4.5 days for Beta, 4.41 days for Delta, and only 3.42 days for Omicron. For a baseline, the incubation period for the original virus was in the neighborhood of seven to 10 days. The times just noted likely have a bit of a fudge factor in that times were recorded based on people's memories of when symptoms started. In terms of the shortened incubation period, an infectious disease specialist at the Mayo Clinic said, "...if [Omicron] had shown up and not the original strain [in 2020], we wouldn't be talking about one out of 308 Americans being dead, we would probably be talking about one out of 200."

The disappearance of various mitigation measures such as masks and distancing is causing problems for people at higher risk of catching covid. Many don't feel safe traveling now that masks are no longer required on public transit. Older adults in particular need to be more careful. Of the over 146,000 US deaths from covid so far this year, 77% percent were people over the age of 65. A geriatrician comments, "I don't want to be alarmist. I think that's the key here. I think people can live their lives. I'm 63, and I'm doubly boosted, and when I go to the supermarket, I wear my N95."

As would I, Quoted Geriatrician, if I went to the grocery store. I do wear one on all my trips away from home. I no longer feel strange being the only masked person in a crowd even outdoors. There's a certain freedom in not having people able to see if I'm smiling at them or sticking my tongue out.